At DNV we are working on the next major release of Phast and Safeti, version 8.4. It’s a very busy and exciting time for us all and I can’t wait for the software to be released. I’ll describe some of the improvements in this post.
64-bit software
The most significant improvement and undertaking is making the software a 64-bit release.
Without getting too technical, with Phast/Safeti built in 32-bit architecture, your processor (even if its a 64-bit processor) will only be able to access 4 GB of RAM per process. By making the software a 64-bit product, many of the bottlenecks associated with 32-bit will be removed, providing significant benefits, particularly for large studies.
We are a long way through this process and have been running a number of tests to check how the software handles large studies. I’m very encouraged by what I have seen so far. We have been running studies that in 32-bit were either very difficult to run or impossible to run without splitting the study into multiple files. So far, every study has run in 64-bit without any memory-related issues.</;p>
There are other benefits to making the switch to 64-bit, such as calculations performing quicker, although this is not the key driver. The key driver is the memory handling. I’m very excited by the potential that 64-bit software offers.
If you are about to purchase new hardware for running Phast/Safeti studies, it is worth having a conversation with DNV GL so that we can provide you with some guidance. Multi-core processors, RAM and solid state drives are key hardware components that require some consideration for running very large studies, in particular. Please contact us at software.support@dnvgl.com for more information.
GIS improvements
Besides 64-bit, there are a number of other improvements we’re making to the software. You may have seen a recent webinar where my colleague Mike Johnson discussed how to incorporate Phast/Safeti results with other GIS such as Google Earth and ArcGIS. We are seeing an increasing demand from users wanting to (1) import data from other GIS to Phast/Safeti and (2) export consequence and risk results from Phast/Safeti to other GIS. As such, we are making some improvements in this area to smooth the workflow for sharing data between the different platforms.
Explosion and thermal radiation exceedance curves for 3D licence users
Pre version 8.4 of Safeti, users can turn off the storage of detailed risk results to keep the database size to a minimum. A drawback of this is that explosion and thermal radiation exceedance curves won’t be generated. In Safeti 8.4, with detailed risk results turned off, explosion and thermal radiation exceedance curves will still be generated.
ERPG toxic effect level contours for 3D licence users
If you have a 3D licence, there will be additional options on the effect levels so that users can very easily produce toxic effect contours based on defined ERPG concentrations.
I’ll be able to reveal details of other improvements as we progress with the project in the coming weeks.
Finally, over the past few months, we have published a number of How to… videos to help you get the most from Phast/Safeti. These videos can be accessed on DNV’s website and on YouTube. My colleagues and I will be adding more videos in the coming weeks and months.
Author: James Pickles, Product Manager for Phast, Safeti and KFX